I support Earth Hour taking place on Saturday March 28, 2009 from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. This is a world wide (84 countries) action by the World Wildlife Federation to have people turn off their lights and non-essential appliances. I’ll be turning it all off except for my refrigerator and I call on everyone to do the same. Last year 36 million in the USA took part. Hopefully this year there will be even more participation. The organizers of Earth Hour state that the purpose of it is “to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions.”

This brings to mind an article I very recently read on New Scientist about how a large sunspot array on the Sun could cause a major catastrophe on Earth. It seems that on an equinox when the sunspot cycle has reached its peak, the sun could shoot out a blast of highly charged energy particles called plasma in a coronal mass ejection and if the solar wind makes a direct hit on Earth it could take out communications and electrical power on our planet by delivering a major overdose of direct current to large electrical transformers. This could easily cause a domino effect destroying various aspects of our infrastructure. Oddly this event could happen in the much feared year of 2012, due to a possible peak of sunspot activity at that time. Currently the sun is virtually devoid of spots which is in itself slightly unusual.

All this reminds me that it would be preferable to “get off the grid” and become energy independent. Solar and wind energy seem very attractive at this time. I also wonder about zero point energy and how technologically far away that might be.

During February there were approximately four earthquakes in New Jersey, three of which were centered in Morris County. This is not an area known for earthquakes although I have heard that there is a fault under Lake Hopatcong. The first earthquake was felt on February 3, 2009 and was a 3.0 on the Richter scale. People said it was like a truck had been dropped from a high elevation and others said it felt more like an explosion than an earthquake. It should be noted that 3 of the 4 earthquakes were centered a short distance from the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal and some local residents wonder if there was not an underground mishap. My own experience with earthquakes is limited to two I experienced in Manhattan. They both felt like a subway had been rerouted directly under my building, however one was centered in the Upper East River and the other in nearby Connecticut. If there is a fault running under Lake Hopatcong one wonders about the advisability of underground weapons storage a mile or two away!

There have also been numerous reports of UFOs having been seen in January and February. Some skeptics have concluded that the reports represent Chinese lanterns but the observers dispute this. Here are some reports:

There are some precedents for the confluence of UFOs and earthquakes. Some researchers believe that powerful electromagnetic fields before earthquakes can disrupt activity in the temporal lobes, causing people to see lights in the sky.

So this is basically a known phenomena that can be researched on the web and in the literature. In Morris County the red lights in the sky were mostly seen in late January, directly before the earthquakes in early February.

April 10, 2009 Note: Apparently two hooligans have confessed to faking the UFOs by launching flares with balloons. They created an aviation hazard and proved NOTHING. Because it is possible to fake something does not mean that all UFO phenomena are faked.

Oddly, the only place I’ve seen a UFO has been in Morris County. The first time was when I was about twelve years old at Cozy Lake. This was the real deal and was witnessed by 15 to 20 other individuals including police officers. (I plan to go into this at great length at another time.) The second time was about 12 years later while passing a reservoir on Route 23 and I am the least positive about this sighting as I was driving by myself to a job. The third and most recent time was on Route 46 this past September around Pine Brook (Morris Co.)/Fairfield (Essex Co.). I am a sky watcher and was looking up toward the North north east and I saw a silver glint in the clear blue sky. I assumed it was an airplane but as I continued to watch it, I could discern no wings, no tail and no windows. It looked like an aluminum or steel barrel with struts around it. Then it winked out of sight. Later I saw several accounts of cylinders being seen as nearby as Staten Island on George Filer’s Filer’s Files.

The other issue here is that I’ve noticed a general increase in public interest in UFOs during the last 18 months. More people I’m speaking to seem to be buzzing about them and this past week on the Paracast I heard Richard Dolan opine that some information might be shortly forthcoming from government informants.